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Thursday, March 22, 2012

A news conference is being held at noon time tomorrow to unveil the details of the sale of the historic Algonquin Hotel in St Andrew's.
Provincial officials have been negotiating with a partnership made up of Southwest Properties and New Castle Hotels and Resorts.
The partnership plans to operate the hotel under the Marriott brand - both companies have experience operating hotels here in Atlantic Canada and the U-S.

A Pension Board trustee has told the defamation trial of former Common Councillor John Ferguson, he wanted nothing to do with the lawsuit.

Andrew Belyea, representing the police union, says he didn't want litigation believing only the lawyers would win despite maintaining, in his opinion, the pension board was defamed. Belyea telling the jury he knew it would turn into a circus.

He also testified transparency can be good or bad because things can be taken out of context adding Ferguson, as a common councillor, was allowed an opinion so long as it didn't go over the edge.

Ferguson's lawyer, Rod Gillis pointed out concerns about the cost of disability pensions emerged as early as 2003 and the pension board was told it should get more advice.

Belyea, representing the police union, testified he ddn't find the number of disability pensions concerning after examining the details and his job was to look out for people who retired with disabilities so long as they had the proper documentation.

He wasn't sure whether the concerns were passed along to Common Council.

The local real estate market appears to be picking up steam after a roller coaster year last year.
The Greater Saint John Real Estate Board says 159-properties were sold last month - an increase of 47-percent over February of last year.
The average sale price of a home also increased by three percent to just over 180-thousand dollars.
Board president Jason Stephen says that strength in the numbers is in sharp contrast to the recent softening trend.

New Brunswickers will no longer be paying higher prices than elsewhere in the country for generic prescription drugs.
Health Minister Madeleine Dube says that's unfair -- so after about a year of consultations with the public and pharmacies - Dube says the price of generic drugs will be capped at 40-percent of the cost of brand names beginning June 1st - that will drop to 35-percent by December 1st.
The minister says the move will mean a savings of 16-million a year - six million of that will be funnelled to the pharmacies as part of the deal negotiated.

It's likely we'll establish a new record high for the day this afternoon after getting into the 20's yesterday.

Bob Robichaud of Environment Canada wouldn't be surprised telling CHSJ News we are engulfed by a warm air mass from the southern U.S.Robichaud predicts it will start to cool off beginning tomorrow but the temperatures will still be above normakl before returning to seasonal values on Monday.

Having just got back from Newfoundland, he warns the cold air isn't all that far away.

Ferguson used us as a platform for politics......That, from city police officer and pension board trustee Andrew Belyea accusing former Common Councillor John Ferguson of grandstanding and making baseless accusations. Belyea served as the Police Association's representative on the pension board.

He testified if Ferguson was all that concerned about the pension board, he could have come up and asked his questions.

Belyea said, “If you're going to shoot your mouth off like that and I can't say anything to you directly, I have a real problem with that.

He told the court if Ferguson was going to take a roundabout way of calling him a criminal, Ferguson should have gone up to the pension board and made the comments face to face.

Earlier the court heard from pension administrator Andrea Cain, who said she wasn't aware of any trustees receiving training in actuarial science, as was recommended by an independent report. Defense lawyer Rod Gillis said that shows the board simply accepted whatever figures it was given without doing its homework.

About 20 people attending an information session at city hall that outlines what goes into running in the upcoming Municipal Election.

The event is arranged by Elections New Brunswick and Chief Electoral Officer Mike Quinn tells CHSJ News while the sessions can act as a filter to see who is really serious about running, it's also an easy way to find out what exactly it takes to run in an election.